It’s a little after the fact now (the audition was 9/14), but I felt pretty good about my performance at this audition. At least I felt it represented me pretty accurately, and Firebird has come a VERY long way. It still needs work, but I made the decision to play it a bit slower and build my long-term confidence with this excerpt, rather than try to play it beyond my abilities.

There was only one round, non-blind, and just the music director listening. The audition list was pretty short, all super standard excerpts, and all excerpts that were on the Knoxville list. Since I had prepared intensely for Knoxville just a couple of weeks prior, I felt relatively relaxed about my preparation for Las Colinas. I focused on playing everything, including warm-ups, very slowly and calmly, because one of the biggest recurring issues I noticed in my Knoxville audition was rushing.

One of the techniques I used to practice (besides playing everything very slowly) was to record with a metronome click, which Kara (from the Dallas Symphony) recommended to me. It is surprisingly hard to get it lined up! I thought I was good at playing with a metronome, but when I REALLY listened, it was not as accurate as I would have guessed.

Overall, it was another positive audition experience- really, they all have been positive. I’m also starting to really appreciate the audition experiences I can get without really high travel costs. This one just took about 45 minutes of driving. The next audition I’m doing is in Dallas, so again, easily drivable. The traveling is exciting, but man it really adds up!